Guns N’ Roses are spending some more time on the road. The rockers just added four new North American dates to their current tour.
The new shows include one Canadian date, October 19 in Edmonton, as well as three U.S. shows: October 22 in Nampa, Idaho; October 24 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and October 27 in Denver, Colorado.
A Nightrain fan club presale begins Monday, September 18, at 10 a.m. local time, with the general onsale happening Wednesday, September 20, at 10 a.m. local time.
Next up, Guns N’ Roses brings their tour to Hollywood, Florida, on Friday, September 15. The tour is set to wrap November 5 with a headlining set at the Heaven & Hell Festival in Mexico City. A complete list of tour dates can be found at gunsnroses.com.
Eric Clapton is taking on a Willie Nelson classic in honor of the country legend’s 90th birthday, which was in April.
Clapton has teamed with country/bluegrass artist Bradley Walker for a cover of Willie’s “Always On My Mind,” dubbing it “a birthday homage to Willie.”
The track’s accompanying video is also Willie-focused, featuring photos and video of Nelson from throughout his career. It opens with a card that reads, “Dear Willie, Here’s to 90 years and many more … love Eric and Bradley.”
You can listen to “You Were Always On My Mind” via digital outlets and watch the accompanying video on YouTube.
There’s a good chance fans will soon get to hear Clapton playing his new tune live. He’s set to headline his Crossroads Guitar Festival, which features Walker on the bill, on September 23 and 24 in Los Angeles.
Other artists performing at the festival include ZZ Top, Santana, StephenStills, Gary Clark Jr., John MayerTrio, Sheryl Crow, Robert Randolph, Roger McGuinn, Buddy Guy and more. More information on the festival, including the complete lineup, can be found at crossroadsguitarfestival.com.
Metallica has released a live version of “Too Far Gone?”, a track off their latest album, 72 Seasons.
The performance was recorded during Metallica’s August 6 concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which marked the song’s live debut. You can listen to it now via digital outlets.
Footage from the MetLife “Too Far Gone?” performance was also included in the song’s new video, which premiered Thursday, September 14.
Metallica played MetLife as part of their ongoing M72 world tour in support of 72 Seasons. The outing continues with the much-anticipated Power Trip festival, taking place October 6-8 in Indio, California. The lineup also includes AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Tool and Judas Priest.
On its second week on the chart, Led Zeppelin‘s In Through the Out Door landed at #1 on the Billboard Album chart, their sixth U.S. chart topper. The album spent seven weeks at #1.
The band’s eighth album, In Through the Out Door featured such future Zeppelin classics as “All of My Love” and “Fool in the Rain.”
It wound up being the band’s final album of new material. They broke up in December, 1980, three months after the death of their drummer, John Bonham.
The highly anticipated Freddie Mercury auction at Sotheby’s is now over, and to say it was a rousing success is an understatement.
In total, Freddie Mercury: A World of his Own brought in $50.4 million, which was a record for such a collection. All 1,406 lots sold, with over 41,800 bids placed during the sale. Each lot had an average of 13 bidders, with bids coming in from 76 different countries and buyers coming from 50.
Bidding was so fierce, almost 99% of the lots that were up for auction exceeded their high estimates, even on the odder offerings. For example, the late Queen frontman’s Tiffany moustache comb had a high estimate of about $500 but sold for a whopping $193,853.
Other quirky sales included: 29 feline ornaments, which sold for $38,743; a neon telephone, which sold for $50,828; a Puss n Boots cookie jar, which went for $12,107; a Japanese wallet that included Mercury’s membership cards, which sold for $45,232, and a rare school book signed Frederick Bulsara, which sold for $88,786.
The item that brought in the highest bid was Mercury’s Yamaha Grand Piano, at $2.2 million, which was a record. Other big ticket items included handwritten lyrics to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which revealed an alternate title, selling for $1.7 million and the signature crown and cloak Mercury wore during Queen’s last live show in 1968, which sold for over $800,000, 10 times more than the lowest estimate.
The Rolling Stones just confirmed Paul McCartney appears on their new album, Hackney Diamonds, and fans may be surprised by what they hear.
In a new interview withRolling Stone, frontman Mick Jagger says they had a hard time deciding what song to have McCartney play on until the album’s producer, Andrew Watt, suggested the “punk song” “Bite My Head Off.”
“Paul seemed very happy to play in a band where he didn’t have all the responsibility; he was just the bass player. And he really rocked out,” Jagger says. “He fitted straight in. It was like we’d been playing with him for years. It was a really good feeling.”
And it sounds like McCartney was just as thrilled to record with The Stones.
“Paul said to me, ‘Can you believe, here we are in the studio together?’” Ronnie Wood shares. “He said, ‘I have a dream come true: I’m playing with the Rolling Stones.’ He was loving it, like a kid in a toy shop.”
And fans will hear more from the collaboration. Wood tells the mag McCartney played on a separate track that didn’t make the album, but they will use it for a future release.
Elton John is also a guest on the album, playing piano on “Get Close” and “Live By The Sword,” with Jagger saying he was surprised Elton didn’t want to contribute more.
But Watt notes, “Elton loves to play, and he started as a session musician. … Everyone’s a fan of The Rolling Stones. Just like Paul, Elton was like, ‘I just f****** played with The Rolling Stones.’”
Hackney Diamonds will be released October 20. Other guests on the album include the late Stones drummer Charlie Watts, former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
KISS rocker Gene Simmons‘ sexual appetite is legendary: he once boasted he slept with over 4,000 women, and while he could be a source of advice for men, he doesn’t think it would do much good.
“Listen, men are idiots,” he tells The Guardian. “There isn’t enough blood to power two heads at once, so a lot of really stupid decisions can get made when that little head takes over.”
He also has a warning for the ladies: “When you’re a woman and you see a man, and he’s big and he’s got a hairy chest and he’s good-looking, and you see that, what you’re seeing is a mirage. That’s actually a 14-year-old horny kid … We can’t even think straight when we see you.”
He adds, “I don’t say this as a defense, because I stand guilty as charged of everything.”
Simmons has been with ShannonTweed for 40 years, and married since 2011. He says he would never leave Shannon, even if she “dilly-dallied like I had.”
“This will be the only marriage I ever have because my definition of marriage isn’t based on that stuff, it’s based on somebody who in a real sense will give their life for you,” he says. “At the end of the day my life will be judged by Shannon, and [their children] Nick and Sophie.”
And while the 74-year-old Simmons and his bandmates in KISS are about to retire from the road, the rocker isn’t thinking about slowing down. He notes, “As long as your schmeckle works, you feel immortal.”
KISS wraps their End of the Road tour with two shows in New York December 1 and 2. A complete list of dates can be found at kissonline.com.
Bonnie Raitt is set to perform at the 22nd annual Americana Honors & Awards, Billboard reports.
Other performers confirmed for the September 20 show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium include Margo Price, Allison Russell, Brandi Carlile, The War and Treaty, The Avett Brothers and Patty Griffin.
Raitt is also nominated for an Americana Award this year. Her Grammy Award-winning track “Just Like That” will compete for Song of the Year against Russell’s “You’re Not Alone,” featuring Carlile; Zac Bryan’s “Something in the Orange”; Price’s “Change of Heart”; and Charley Crocket’s “I’m Just A Clown.”
And fans who can’t make it to Nashville can still catch Raitt’s performance. The Americana Honors & Awards will stream live on Circle Network’s YouTube page, then one day later it will air on the Americana Music Association’s Facebook page. It will also air on PBS in November in the Austin City Limits time slot.
The Americana Honors & Awards is part of Nashville’s annual Americanafest, taking place September 19-23. A complete list of nominees can be found at americanamusic.org.
Chicago is helping fans get into the Christmas spirit.
The band is set to release the compilation Chicago Greatest Christmas Hitsfeaturing songs from the band’s previous three Christmas albums:1998’s Chicago XXV: The Christmas Album and its 2003 reissue, which was titled What’s It Gonna Be, Santa?; 2011’s Chicago XXXIII: O Christmas Three; and 2019’s Chicago XXXVII: Chicago Christmas.
The collection has the band covering such holiday classics as “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” and “Wonderful Christmas Time” with a guest appearance by Dolly Parton.
Chicago Greatest Christmas Hits will be released November 3 digitally, and on CD and red vinyl. It will also be released on green vinyl, but it will be a Barnes & Noble exclusive. The album is available for preorder now.
But that’s not all. Rhino is set to reissue O Christmas Three on CD, plus all of Chicago’s Christmas albums are being bundled together as a three-CD set, Chicago Christmas Complete, that will also be released November 3. There will also be a digital playlist featuring songs from the albums.
All of this is set to come out ahead of Chicago headlining two very special Christmas shows in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Billed as Chicago & Friends, the concerts are happening November 17 and 18 at Ovation Hall at the Ocean Casino Resort, with the band welcoming special guests Chris Daughtry, Robin Thicke, Steve Vai, RobertRandolph and more. The shows will be filmed for the concert TV special Decades Rock Live.
Metallica has premiered a new video for “Too Far Gone?,” a track off the band’s new album, 72 Seasons.
The clip stars professional skateboarder Felipe Nunes, who lost both of his legs in a childhood accident, and also features footage from Metallica’s live debut of “Too Far Gone?” during their concert at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in August.
You can watch the “Too Far Gone?” video streaming now on YouTube.
Metallica previously put out videos for every song off of 72 Seasons around its release in April. Each clip was also accompanied by American Sign Language interpretations.
Metallica has been supporting 72 Seasons on the M72 world tour, which continues with the Power Trip festival, taking place October 6-8. The much-anticipated event, which takes place at the same site of Coachella in Indio, California, also features AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Tool.
